The U.S. Military Lied

U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States, according to several current and former employees of Lincoln Group, the Washington-based contractor.

In contrast to assertions by military officials in Baghdad and Washington, interviews and Lincoln Group documents show that the information campaign waged over the last year was designed to cloak any connection to the U.S. military.
To those right-wing extremists who think that the ends justify the means, that using propaganda and then lying about it is perfectly okay: Imagine if an element of the U.S. military decided that Bush was bad news, and employed a similar program here?

Or imagine that the group decided to use the program in over a dozen other countries and turned our allies (well, the few remaining) against us: China and Japan refuse to buy Treasury Notes to fund our deficit spending; England and the Netherlands jettison their American real estate at fire sale prices and demolish the property market; dozens of companies around the globe dump their American stocks and bonds.

It would be economic devastation, leading to a nationwide riot, all because a small group of government officials decided that they knew what was best for the country, and democracy wasn’t on their list. If blood has to be shed, lives ruined or ended, c’est la guerre.

This is why the ends don’t justify the means. This is why using propaganda is equivalent to juggling nuclear warheads. This is why lying about using propaganda is as great a crime as using it.